The conventional honing machine for honing blades includes a pair of cooperating honing wheels, each having mating or cooperating spiral threads or ribs and the blade to be honed is inserted between the wheels. In operation, the surfaces of the honing wheels tend to glaze over and it is necessary to periodically dress the surfaces of the honing wheels to remove metallic deposits and foreign materials. In the conventional honing machine, the honing wheels are moved laterally apart and individually dressed by passing diamond-tipped dressing members across the surfaces of the wheels. The dressing operation has traditionally been a cut-and-try method in which the dressing members were manually positioned with respect to the honing wheels for dressing, and the honing wheels were then returned to the honing position and set in the honing position through visual observation.
As the honing wheels are normally driven through a common motor or drive source, a problem has arisen in the past in maintaining the driving connection to the honing wheels as the wheels are moved laterally between the honing and dressing positions.